LG Electronics Q2 net jumps 62 pct on strong demand

SEOUL, July 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday its second-quarter earnings rose more than 62 percent from a year earlier on strong overseas demand for its mobile phones and TVs.

LG Electronics earned 1.15 trillion won (US$920 million) in the April-June
period, up 62.1 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory
filing. It was also a turnaround from a 197.6 billion won loss the previous
quarter.
Sales rose 17.2 percent on-year to the record-high 8.48 trillion won in the
second quarter, with its operating profit gaining 12.5 percent to 714 billion
won, the company said.
Despite the stellar second-quarter performance, shares of LG Electronics were
trading at 130,000 won on the Seoul bourse as of 1:30 p.m., down 2.26 percent
from the previous session.
LG Electronics said its global sales, including revenue by overseas affiliates,
surged 13.9 percent on-year to a quarterly record of 14.5 trillion won in the
second quarter.
Its TV shipments also rose 45 percent annually to 4.28 million units as a result
of robust flat panel TV sales, especially of liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs. LG
Electronics is the world's third-largest TV maker after Samsung Electronics Co.
and Sony Corp.
Sales in its display division reached 4.51 trillion won, with a profit margin of
5 percent, 4.7 percentage points higher than a year earlier.
LG Electronics' overseas shipments of mobile handsets climbed 7.8 percent on-year
in the second quarter to 29.82 million units, largely due to strong demand for
mid-range models and full touchscreen phones. The company is the world's No. 3
handset maker.
The company said it expects the global market for handsets to decline over 6
percent on-year in the third quarter, but added that its handset and TV divisions
will likely see substantial growth in the near term thanks to an expected
increase in demand for high-end models.